So, one project I've been working on lately is a text-to-semaphore robot that translates junk emails into semaphore.
I don't really intend to tell the viewer that the text he's translating is junk email but rather just present them with a scratch pad a key as to what position is what letter/number. If they take the time to translate some of his message (he delivers sixty characters per minute) they are rewarded with gems such as (and I'm digging these straight out of my inbox) "The Most Reliable Pharmacy Online Free 4 or 12 ViagraPills with any purchase its 100 percent FREE, no gimmick. Use the free pills to satisfy your woman " leaving them to wonder if it was worth the effort.
Here are some videos documenting the alpha, 1.0 and 2.0 tests and iterations.
It's worth noting that after reviewing my semaphore, his right arm is miscalibrated by 1 position.
5 comments:
Will you post your code for your semaphore bot? I am working on my own. Instead of servos, I'm using stepper motors. I think you can get a little more precision with steppers.
The goal is to make a twitter reader.
I certainly can post my code, but I must warn you it's: a) dreadfully simple and 2) has some weirdness to it that's specific to the fact that I was layering servos due to a time constraint on the alpha and beta phases.
One thing you should consider before going the stepper motor route is that steppers break full rotations into a limited number of positions. Most steppers I have seen were either 3 or 4 positions. Servos are a lot more precise, and have a higher resolution, however they are limited in that they usually do not have a full 360 range, and are always limited to non-continuous rotations (They do make 360 degree servos, but they're pricey. The better solution, and the one I use in my third iteration of semaphore-bot is to gear up the servo. In my case, my servos can do a full 180 degree swing, so a 2:1 gear ratio allows me a full 360 swing, which costs you a bit or accuracy, but not enough to worry about with semaphore, which uses 8 distinct positions per flag.)
I am getting close to finishing mine. My stepper motors have 7.5 degree steps (48 steps per rotation)
It works pretty well. I plan to borrow a camera in the next few days and post a video online.
Let me know where I can find it once you get yours up.
Ok, I got some pictures and code up at:
http://www.windmeadow.com/node/55
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